By Megumi Fujikawa

TOKYO--Alimentation Couche-Tard will continue its friendly pursuit of Seven & i, executives said, even as they vented their frustrations over the slow progress in acquisition talks with the Japanese owner of the 7-Eleven convenience-store chain.

"We are continuing to pursue a friendly, mutually agreeable transaction" with Seven & i, Alain Bouchard, Couche-Tard's founder and executive chairman, said at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

"We believe our proposal provides clear value to all stakeholders and should be generally and adequately considered," he said, adding that the Canadian owner of Circle K has no intention to go hostile at this point.

The Couche-Tard executives expressed disappointment about the lack of engagement with Seven & i, while sounding confident that they can overcome antitrust issues in the U.S. that the 7-Eleven owner has raised as one of its biggest concerns regarding the takeover proposal.

"Even to this day we are trying to have meetings. It's hard. Actually, it's not possible," Bouchard said, adding, "we may be able to enhance our proposal through due diligence as we form a greater understanding of the opportunity."

Seven & i didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In September, Seven & i rejected an initial $39 billion buyout bid from Couche-Tard, saying the proposal underestimated the company's value and citing regulatory hurdles in the U.S. Couche-Tard later raised its offer to about $47 billion.

The Canadian company resubmitted a revised, yen-denominated, nonbinding proposal on Jan. 24 and is working on divesting some of its stores in the U.S. to address antitrust concerns.

In its own attempt to revamp the business, Seven & i plans to split its North American convenience stores into a separate listed company by the second half of next year.

Stephen Hayes Dacus, a former Walmart executive named last week as Seven & i's new CEO, said there's a risk that the companies will spend two years or more on regulatory clearance and still be rejected by the U.S. courts.

Couche-Tard Chief Executive Alex Miller said Thursday that the company has a good track record with antitrust authorities around the world, and has successfully closed many deals in the U.S. He said it wouldn't take two years to obtain approval for the prospective Seven & i takeover.

On a website designed to explain its commitment to reaching a deal, Couche-Tard said it remains confident that its proposal is "the most attractive for Seven & i, its customers, franchisees, and the shareholders of both companies."

Miller said he has no plan to close 7-Eleven stores or cut jobs in Japan. "I think there's a lot of ways to increase profitability besides closing stores or firing people," he said, adding that listening to franchisees is one way to do so.

"We would like full engagement versus just working on antitrust," he said.

Write to Megumi Fujikawa at megumi.fujikawa@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 13, 2025 03:43 ET (07:43 GMT)

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